UK’s Johnson: Independent public inquiry to examine pandemic response

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared Wednesday that the government will conduct a public inquiry next year examining its response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Johnson told members of Parliament that the scope of the investigation will be determined after consultations with various government agencies and administrations but that investigators will be able to obtain any relevant materials or testimony they desire.

“Amid such tragedy, the state has an obligation to examine its actions as rigorously and as candidly as possible and to learn every lesson for the future, which is why I’ve always said that when the time is right there should be a full and independent inquiry. So, Mr. Speaker, I can confirm today that the government will establish an independent, public inquiry on a statutory basis with full powers under the Inquiries Act of 2005,” Johnson said. 

“Every part of our United Kingdom has suffered the ravages of this virus, and every part of the state has pulled together to do battle against it. And if we are to recover as one team U.K., as we must, then we should also learn lessons together in the same spirit.”

The investigation, set to start in the spring, will probe the government response to a pandemic that has killed over 127,000 people, marking Europe’s highest death toll from the virus.

The government’s response to the deadly pandemic has received mixed responses. Critics have accused Johnson of being too slow to impose lockdowns across the country, including in March 2020 and earlier this year during the emergence of a highly infectious variant. 

However, the government has also received praise for its vaccination strategy, which entailed getting as many first doses into arms while waiting weeks or months to administer second doses, giving a broad swath of the population some form of immunity as quickly as possible. Over 50 percent of adults in the U.K. have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. 

Johnson hinted that the probe into the government’s response will prove costly and should not bog down the health officials who are still spearheading ongoing efforts to curb COVID-19’s spread in the U.K. 

“This process will place the state’s actions under the microscope, and we should be mindful of the scale of that undertaking and the resources required to do it properly. The exercise of identifying and disclosing all relevant information, the months of preparation and retrospective analysis and the time people will have to spend testifying in public, in some cases for days, will place a significant burden on our [National Health Service], on the whole of government, on our scientific advisers, and on many others,” he said.

“We must not inadvertently divert or distract the very people on whom we all depend in the heat of our struggle against this disease, and the end of the lockdown is not the end of the pandemic.”